September of 2017, I realized a lifelong dream of an old fashioned tent camp safari in southern Africa. I chose Wilderness Travel for their award winning adventure trips and very small groups. I flew the very long trip from Anchorage to Johannesburg South Africa via Seattle and Dubai. After an overnight there, I flew back north to Maun in Botswana, where our group was met at mid day, and then flown on a small plane north to a dirt strip just outside of the world famous Moremi Game Reserve. Our party of 8 plus our two guides then traveled in two Toyota jeeps for a couple hours across rutted, hardly defined, minimal dirt roads into the Moremi Game Reserve to our lst tent camp. We would stay there 3 nights and do dawn and late day game drives into Moremi. Our lst game that we sighted was a family of elephants in an open, grassy savanna.
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| Our group of 8 after landing in the wilderness just outside the south enterance to Moremi Game Reserve |
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| The first game seen, a family of elephants in a grassy savanna |
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| A beautiful male Kudo near our vehicle |
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| A huge Southern Ground Hornbill |
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| A big herd of graceful Impala and one of the many big termite spires |
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| A family of elephants that had crossed right in front of us |
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| A small herd of Wildebeasts near our rutted sand road |
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| A typical spectacular red sunset over a marsh pond |
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| A small herd of Burchell's Zebra |
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| A family of giraffes near our road |
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| Red Lechwe grazing near our path |
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| The closest giant common ostrich of 6 that were around a pond |
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| Small family of Burchell Zebra |
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| Three majestic male lions resting in the shade during the mid day |
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| A grown male hippo that had been driven out of the family pond by the alpha male |
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| Tsessebe Antelope grazing near by |
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| Magnificent leopard resting on a limb of a shade tree during the heat of the middle of the day |
After our 3 nights in Moremi, we broke camp early and drove for a couple hours to the north over nearly impassable roads to a channel of water. There we boarded a jet drive powered boat for a long ride through a maze of channels to the northwest and eventually to a small 8 cabin lodge on an island on a larger open waterway in the Okavanago Delta. Our tent camp that we were in for our 1st three nights was broken down, and the crew drove it far to the north to the Savuti Channel, where we would be flown after the two nights at the Xugana Island Lodge in the Delta. The trips out into the delta channels were amazing, with unbelievable wild life, birds, hippos, crocodiles and game on the islands. On one trip, we were taken out into the delta and then taken through the marsh waterways in Mocoros, which were poled thru the maze of channels late that 1st full day. We also did a long foot trek on one island, where we saw elephants, jackals, baboons, impala, and much more. The foot trek with our guides armed with elephant guns was a thrilling experience. Some waterways had an amazing variety of cranes, egrets, storks, herons, ibis, pelicans, cormorants, and many more varieties of water birds. The little lodge had electric fences to keep the elephants out and with so many lions in the area, we had to be escorted to and from our cabins from dark after dinner until we received our escort to breakfast at dawn the next morning. The lodge used to be a hunting lodge before Botswana banned all hunting. It even had a small, delightful swimming pool right there in the middle of the African wilderness on the Delta. A cold beer and a swim during our hot noon breaks between the morning game outings and the late afternoon outings were a real treat. This was late in the dry season, with very hot, dry days and chilly nights.
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| Our boat at the waterway pickup area before our long ride across the marshlands |
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| A typical view while traveling through the watery maze of marsh lands |
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| Approaching the cluster of Mocoro dugouts that would silently pole us through the march channels |
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| A typical view as I was poled along a marsh channel in a Mocoro |
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| A huge crocodile resting along the watery channel |
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| A huge marsh elephant who was alarmingly close |
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| Lunch on a small island with an elephant walking right behind our picnic site. |
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| Trees loaded with storks, cranes, herons, ibis, pelicans, cormorants and more |
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| Enjoying a cold beer and the pool at Xugana Lodge during the noon break |
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| Resting on the Lodge deck along the water before starting the afternoon viewing outing. |
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| Our Xugana guide, Chilibee, armed and leading our 3 hour trek across one of the larger islands |
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| Yours truly posing with our Xugana guide, Chilibee, with his elephant gun |
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| Our group on a small ridge looking at the family of elephants we were approaching from downwind |
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| The family of elephants that we stalked and got within about 50 yards from |
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| Basking in the late day sunset just before having a sunset "Happy Hour" onboard |
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| The stunning sunset across one of the larger Delta marsh open ponds |
After two nights at the lodge, we trekked with two armed guides about a mile across the island behind the lodge to a small dirt airstrip, where we were picked up and flown north to the Savuti Channel area for the next two nights. Our tent camp there was all set up and waiting for us when we arrived. We were incredibly lucky to see two wild dog hunts and a pair of cheetahs up close. We later got to watch them set up a hunt for a group of wildebeasts. The elephants and lions we saw there were amazing to watch in the wild. We got a very up close sighting of a beautiful leopard resting during the heat of the day on a limb of a big shade tree. We saw about a dozen and a half different species of antelope and many, many birds of all kinds.
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| My tent bunk and table in the sleeping front 2/3rds of the tent. The side screens were all zipped shut at night. |
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The back 1/3 of my tent, with the wash basin table, mirror, ground toilet
and a shower head out of sight to the right on the tent ceiling. |
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The rear of the tent showing the water container that was raised
to provide a brief hot shower and hand washing inside the tent |
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| Our group enjoying a mid day lunch in camp between game drives |
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| Sitting around a small camp fire after our dinner talking of the days adventures |
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| Two magnificent cheetahs resting in the shade during the heat of the day |
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| One of the cheetahs about to start its hunt for close by wildebeasts |
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A magnificent male lion strolling across the savanna right along side of our Toyota,
not even looking at us |
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| Me alongside a huge Baobab tree, hundreds of years old |
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| A curious yellow hornbill, very common everywhere we went |
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| An elegant male Kudo resting in the shade near our path |
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| Just a few of the dozens of elephants we saw drink and play in the waterhole |
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| Lovely Roan Antelope |
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A Spotted Hyena and 4 cubs only a few hundred yards from our tent camp.
They wandered through our camp every night. |
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| Close view of one of the wild dogs in the pack we saw hunt |
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| Another wild dog, eating part of the impala that they just killed |
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One wild dog parent and the 5 pups right along side our vehicles.
The impala they had killed was just past the vehicle. |
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| The 2 parents and 5 pups with part of the impala kill |
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| A huge bull elephant at a waterhole |
Finally, we again broke camp and drove north to the world famous Chobe National Park. We drove to the Chobe Marina lodge on the Chobe River to take a long mid day and afternoon boat trip along the Chobe River. There we had up close viewing of the vast herds of Cape Buffalo, elephants, antelope of many kinds, hippos, crocodiles and much more. In our boat, we could glide nearly right up to much of the game along the river. It was an astonishing experience. After the day on the river, we drove back into the park to our newly set up camp in the Serondella area for our last two nights of the tent camping. We saw another leopard, again resting up in a shade tree during the hot mid day. And, the lions and elephants were everywhere. Our last evening near dark, we viewed a pride of 8 lions walking on all sides of our Toyota. There was a mother and her 4 young cubs, two other females and one young male. They totally ignored us and walked within feet of our two vehicles. Chobe is truly one of the worlds most incredible game viewing areas, and I was told that it contains about a quarter of all the elephants left on the African continent.
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| Family of elephants crossing the road near Kasane |
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View from the deck of the Chobe Marina Lodge, where we boarded
our boat for the half day wildlife river cruise |
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Baboons , Impala and Zebras in a typical grouping where the Baboons are
counted on to be the alarm guards |
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| Hundreds of African or Cape Buffalo grazing along the Chobe River |
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| Large numbers of elephants and Impala grazing along the Chobe River flats |
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| Two female lions interested in starting a hunt |
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| Half a dozen big African or Cape Buffalo close to our boat |
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| Waterbuck grazing at waters edge |
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| Hippos grazing along side the Chobe River |
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| A big Baboon standing guard and alert |
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| Part of a big Baboon family that surrounded our Toyota |
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| More of the hundreds of elephants that were all along the Chobe River |
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| A huge crocodile at waters edge |
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| The fun Zebra painted van of the Chobe Marina Lodge |
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| Another stunning red sunset over the Chobe River this time. |
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| Three female lions resting near our vehicle and not even glancing at us |
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A female lion and 2 of her 4 cubs within a few feet of our
Toyota. It was nearly dark and she did not even look our way |
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| Our last dinner in a tent camp there in Chobe National Park |
Finally, we broke camp after our last two nights in Chobe National Park, and drove on our lst paved roads into Kasane. From the same Chobe Marina Lodge, we were then bussed to the border crossing into Zimbabwe. After two long, hot hours, we were able to get our visas and cross the border to drive to Victoria Falls. About 2 pm that afternoon, I elected to take a 20 minute helicopter flight over Victoria Falls. It was the low water season, but the falls were still spectacular to view. It is one of the original 7 Wonders of the World. We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking the rim trail of the world famous falls and exploring the town. We stayed that night at the historic Victoria Falls Hotel, which dated back to the very early colonial days. Our group was treated to a dinner show on our final night at the Boma Safari Drums and Dinner Club, which featured many African drummers and a menu of wild African game of all kinds. On our final day, we again explored the Victoria Falls area and then were driven to the modern airport to fly south back to Johannesburg to start the long trip home.
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| Our head cook, Mary cooking the meat course for that last tent camp dinner |
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Me relaxing in the Chobe Marina Lodge grounds with a wart hog
wanderingl thru , seen just over and behind my right shoulder |
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The front entrance to the famous, old Victoria Falls Hotel
we stayed in our last night |
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My helicopter view taken while on my 20 minute flight
over the world famous falls. |
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A map showing the falls and the "rain forest area" that the mist
from the falls creates |
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| A view taken while we walked the entire rim trail opposite the falls |
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| A view of part of the vast falls, over 300 feet high |
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| Another view of the falls along the rim trail with a small rainbow to upper right |
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| Yet another view and a brighter rainbow above the spectacular falls |
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| Our group at the dinner show in the Boma Safari Drums and Dinner Club |
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| Impala and Eland being roasted over a fire at the Boma Dinner Club |
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Some of the drummers and drums at the Boma Drums and Dinner Safari club
that last night in Victoria Falls |
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| The elegant Livingstone Room in the famous Victoria Falls Hotel |
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Our group enjoying a wonderful, lavish breakfast outside in the
Victoria Hotel on our last morning. |
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The Victoria Falls head bellman , dressed to the hilt in the
front of the Victoria Falls Hotel as he saw us off to the airport,
sadly the end of our great, unforgettable African adventure |
